Turning Away From Wheely Bad Decisions

The first thing most teenagers think of when someone even begins to mention independence in high school is having their own car. And the ability to drive it, of course. The feeling of getting your hands wrapped around that steering wheel that you know for absolute certain won’t be taken away…probably. As someone who only just recently passed his driving test a few weeks ago, it felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Now, it was my choice to walk home after school, I could get a job somewhere farther afield, and it would make meeting friends way easier. But through all of this giddiness that all new drivers feel, we must also remember the danger. 42,915 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2021 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; that was just in America alone. Now I will say, even in the best situations, accidents happen, but that number is just too much to think about. To put it in perspective, I’m going to drop a few figures and do some math. In PG county (my home county) there are roughly 136,500 students in public schools. Doing the math, if those fatalities happened to the school population, we’d be wiped out in under 4 years. What can we do to stop this tragic number from ever being as high as it was? Well, we can push driver’s education. If we teach people how to drive responsibly and give them good reasons to focus on the road instead of their friends, phone, or partner, we will avoid a large number of accident related deaths. Driver’s Ed also enables every prospective driver to actually get seen driving by an instructor, who should be ready and willing to fail someone if necessary. When it comes to driving, there shouldn’t be a policy of “if I let them pass now, it’ll allow them time to get better.” I’m not saying there is one, nor am I taking shots at the driving schools because the one I went to was very good at what they were supposed to do. However, if someone is posing a threat on the roads, they shouldn’t slip through the net and manage to get all the way to their driving test to be failed. That should’ve happened weeks or months beforehand. Another thing with a good Driver’s Ed is that people know just how impactful the consequences of their actions can be, and as a result, they will take more care in what they’re doing not only when they’re driving, but also what they do in the passenger and back seats as well. One way to help reduce the number of driving deaths is to place more deterring equipment, such as speed cameras, in places where people tend to go way over the speed limit. I know for a fact that the main road near my house has hosted quite a few drag races because half the time I can hear them from my room. I will say that considering they keep happening, that means no one has died yet but even so, if there were proper safety measures taken by the county then the risk of a high speed crash would be alleviated. I am lucky enough to say that I myself have never been involved in a serious car accident and my friends that I am in the car with are all decent drivers. I have heard stories about people getting swiped as they step off the sidewalk or the good ol’ Jeep logo imprinted on their back for a month. No one is perfect, especially when it comes to driving, most people will readily admit that one of the few times they actually came to a complete stop and let the car settle at a stop sign was during their driver’s test. No shame there, just don’t tell the MVA. Personally, some of the things I can do to make myself a better driver are to make sure that the inside of the car is at least relatively under control. Having chaos happening all around you is only going to distract you from the semi truck who stopped a while ago but didn’t notice you. By keeping my friends mostly away from their notoriously rambunctious selves for a while, I can make the journey safer for everyone. Trust me though, as soon as the car is parked, we can let it all go back to its circus-like normality. Obviously, driving under the influence is one of the stupidest decisions you can make other than maybe moving to New York City to enjoy the world’s natural beauty. I personally am set on never doing drugs or smoking in my life so that already lowers my risk because I’m always going to be driving sober. As a collective, we can all make sure to minimize distractions while driving and always remember what we first learned all those years ago in Driver’s Ed. Most of it was common sense anyways. By doing all of these things, and making sure that both the local legislature and the nearby Driver’s Education programs are all rock solid and ready to forge good drivers, we can hope to see a reduction in the amount of road related deaths very soon.